The present invention relates to a fishing rod having a solid rod section.
Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 59-20057 discloses a structure in which a so-called solid member, which is formed solidly by impregnating reinforced fibers arranged in the axial direction with a resin, is used at a tip of a fishing rod. This tip rod section is constructed such that glass fibers with a small modulus of elasticity are used as reinforced fibers of the solid member, and that a prepreg using carbon fibers with a large modulus of elasticity is wound around an outer periphery of a butt portion of the solid member and is formed integrally therewith. It has been the conventional practice to use a solid member as a tip rod section in this manner.
However, as rods for fishing large fish or fish with strong tugs, rod portions ranging from at least a butt rod to a rod portion close to a tip are conventionally formed from hollow rod pipes. The reason for this is that, since a large bending force acts in a butt portion when such fish are caught, the fishing rod must be made capable of withstanding the tugs of the fish by enlarging the bending rigidity of the butt portion to some degree, i.e., by enlarging the diameter to some degree, and that light weight must also be attained. However, the tip of the rod must naturally be made slender. Accordingly, hollow rod pipes which are each manufactured by winding a prepreg around a core are used as rod portions excluding at least a rod portion close to the tip, and these rod portions are generally joined such that they become gradually slender toward the tip, thereby forming a fishing rod of a predetermined length.
However, since the butt portion is formed from a hollow pipe whose bending rigidity is large to some extent and whose diameter is large, if this portion is deflected substantially, the so-called crush breakage occurs. For this reason, the portion close to an angler""s hand is structured to be provided with even larger bending rigidity so that the portion close to the hand will not be deflected much. Since the fishing rod thus structured has a large diameter at the butt portion, and a predetermined small diameter at the tip portion, it is natural that, in general, the fishing rod becomes long. For this reason, in terms of the deflected state of the fishing rod in a case where a fish is caught, the fishing rod is deflected substantially from the intermediate portion to the tip, but is not deflected so much from the intermediate portion to the butt portion. Due to the distance from the butt portion to the intermediate portion, even in the state in which a fish is caught and the fishing rod is deflected, the distance from the butt portion being gripped by the angler to the rod tip is long, so that the bending moment acting in the butt portion due to the load of the fish and the like is very large, and the emaciation of the physical strength of the angler who withstands this bonding moment is very intense.
In addition, since the carbon fibers wound around the outer periphery of the solid member disclosed in the above-described publication has a modulus of elasticity larger than that of the glass fibers of the solid member, the rigidity of the tip before and behind the position of a front edge of the wound prepreg changes sharply, and the state of deflection before and behind this position changes sharply. Hence, there is a drawback in that the fishing rod is liable to break at this position. In addition, since the kinds of reinforced fibers differ between the solid member and the prepreg wound therearound, the different coefficients of expansions are likely to distort the formed tip.
In view of the above-described drawback, a first object of the present invention is to provide a joined-type fishing rod which does not break even if a large fish is caught by a slender fishing rod.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a fishing rod with which, even when fishing large fish or fish demonstrating strong tugs, fishing can be performed comfortably even if the angler""s physical strength is small.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a fishing rod having a solid rod section in which the deflection before and behind the front edge of the prepreg wound around the solid member is smooth, the concentration of stress is difficult to occur, and the distortion of bending of the formed basic material is difficult to occur.
A first aspect of the present invention is a fishing rod in which a hollow rod pipe is joined to a distal end of a solid rod.
According to the first aspect, since a butt rod is formed by a solid rod and an outer layer or by the solid rod alone, the butt rod can be made a slender butt rod, and a tip rod which is joined to the butt rod can also be made a slender tip rod. As a result, the overall joined-type fishing rod becomes slender, so that the fishing rod operation such as a casting operation is easy to perform.
Moreover, since the tip rod is hollow, it is possible to prevent a heavy hanging down of the rod when the fishing rod is held.
Further, even when a large fish is caught, since the butt rod is formed by the solid rod and the outer layer or by the solid rod alone, it is possible to obtain a tough and high-strength fishing rod which is capable of coping with large deflection and preventing breakage.
A second aspect of the present invention is a fishing rod in which a portion of the fishing rod ranging from a portion close to a butt portion of the fishing rod to a rod tip is formed by a solid rod having a region where a fiber-reinforced plastic prepreg in which reinforced fibers are arranged mainly in one direction is wound around and integrated with a surface of a solid member using a resin as a matrix and reinforced mainly by reinforced fibers generally oriented in an axial direction, in such a manner that a direction of the reinforced fibers of the prepreg is generally oriented in the axial direction.
In the above, xe2x80x9cfrom a portion close to a butt portionxe2x80x9d may be xe2x80x9cfrom a rear end of the fishing rod,xe2x80x9d or may be xe2x80x9cfrom a portion excluding a grip operation portionxe2x80x9d (handle portion). Namely, the region where deflection is not expected is arbitrary, but the region where deflection is expected is formed by the solid rod.
The prepreg referred to in this application has a broad meaning which includes not only prepregs using thermosetting resins in general, but also those in a state in which a thermoplastic resin is mixed with reinforced fibers. Accordingly, the concept of a matrix synthetic resin similarly includes resins of both kinds.
If the fishing rod is formed to be not hollow but solid, even if the fishing rod is deflected substantially, crush breakage does not occur. For this reason, in the case of a fishing rod having a hollow rod, it becomes possible to structure the fishing rod in such a manner that its butt portion is deflected substantially. Accordingly, when a large fish is caught, the overall fishing rod including the butt portion is deflected substantially, so that the distance from the butt portion being gripped by the angler to the rod tip becomes short, so that the load of the bending moment applied to the angler becomes small, and fishing is therefore made very comfortable. That is, in this application, attention is focused on the fact that the crush breakage can be prevented if a solid rod is used, and the fishing rod down to the butt portion can be deflected substantially by adoption of the solid rod, thereby making it possible to effect comfortable fishing.
A third aspect of the present invention is a fishing rod comprising: a solid rod in which a coating film is provided on a surface of a tip portion of a solid member using a resin as a matrix and reinforced mainly by reinforced fibers generally oriented in an axial direction, the solid rod having a region where a prepreg which mainly uses as axially reinforced fibers carbon fibers having a modulus of elasticity of a magnitude less than or equal to a modulus of elasticity of the carbon fibers and has a resin ratio smaller than a resin ratio of the solid member is wound around and integrated with a surface of the solid member excluding the tip portion.
If the solid member is used, a rod having a small diameter is generally formed, but the prepreg wound around this solid member has a resin ratio smaller than the resin ratio of the solid member. Therefore, if the same flextural rigidity is to be obtained, the diameter of the fishing rod can be made small and light weight can be achieved by winding the prepreg rather than forming the fishing rod by the solid member alone. Since the modulus of elasticity of the axially oriented reinforced fibers of the wound prepreg is less than or equal to the modulus of elasticity of the axially oriented reinforced fibers used in the solid member, a sharp change in the rigidity of the rod at a boundary portion of prepreg winding can be prevented. For this reason, pliability is smooth, the concentration of stress is difficult to occur, and the strength improves. At the same time, since the axially oriented reinforced fibers are mainly formed from carbon fibers of the same kind, for instance, even if the solid member is heat-formed in advance, and is subsequently heated together with the wound prepreg, since the difference in the coefficient of linear expansion is small, the distortion or bending of the formed basic material can be prevented. In addition, in a case where the tip portion of the solid member is formed into a tapered shape by grinding and polishing, the axially oriented reinforced fibers in the vicinity of the surface become cut, but since a coating film is provided on the surface of the tip portion of the solid member which is located in this cut region, it is possible to prevent peeling off and fracturing.